Cell phone and other mobile communication devices have grown dramatically in popularity in recent years, in not just the United States but throughout the world. While an annoying phone call to a traditional phone (i.e., land-line) might be a minor inconvenience, mobile devices are portable, they are often taken into places or situations where disturbances could range from extremely annoying to completely unacceptable, such as in meetings, movie theaters, restaurants, etc.
Furthermore, many mobile communications devices accept other forms of communication than merely phone calls. For example, many mobile communications devices permit communication via text messaging. The most popular text messaging protocol is the Short Message Service (SMS) protocol. In SMS, a user may send up to 160 characters to a communications device. While SMS messages are similar to email in that text messages are transmitted, they are different in that they typically aren't transmitted via Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) or similar protocols, but are instead transmitted over a mobile communications services such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). As such, much like a phone call, they have an origination phone number, which can be accessed in order to identify the originator of the message (such as, for example, by using caller ID).
Many annoying phone calls or SMS messages may fall under the category of “spam.” Spam is generally unsolicited commercial advertising. While spam generally wastes time and can be annoying, for the most part it does not cause direct financial harm to the recipient (although the resources that spam utilizes can indirectly cost money, such as, for example, bandwidth costs rising). There are other types of communications which are more malicious. These include communications with viruses or worms, as well as so called “phishing” attacks. A phishing attack is one where the sender is posing as a legitimate sender in order to entice the recipient to respond with personal information that could then be used to steal money. For example, a phishing attack may include a communication purportedly from a bank requesting that the recipient enter his bank account information in order to correct a problem or access a service. Upon transmission of the account information, the user's bank account is cleaned out by the malicious initiator of the attack.
One way to aid in the prevention of unwanted spam or phone calls to users of a mobile device is to utilize black lists. As black list is a list that the user sets up containing a list of all phone numbers, prefix numbers, or phrases that the user wishes to block. For example, the user may elect to block all messages from a particular phone number or grouping of phone numbers. The user may also elect to block all messages from any phone number for any messages that contain a certain term or phrase.
The disadvantage of this approach is that it is a standalone approach. A user's blacklist is unique to his device or account and there is no mechanism in which to easily share this information with others.
Considering this previous approach and its disadvantages, a mobile device reputation system is desired that would be effective, simple, flexible and easy for the end user to use.